Unlike its defense, Ole Miss’ offense had enough talent at certain spots to put some points on the scoreboard and collect some yards through the air. But that hasn’t been the case of late.

Instead, the Rebels have scored three points in the past six quarters and haven’t scored a touchdown in 103 minutes — and have even given up two touchdowns to Cal and Alabama’s defenses.

So what has gone wrong with Ole Miss’ offense and can it get any better in time for its road date with No. 13 Auburn Saturday (11 a.m., SEC Network)?

“It comes down to execution. I’m not happy with our last six quarters of play but this is a process. I’ve been through this before,” offensive coordinator Phil Longo told The Clarion-Ledger this week. “It’s just a process. We’ve got to take the offense and the players and we’ve got to close the window and get them to the same place. I think when that happens people will realize what these guys will be capable of in this system.”

“Obviously, I think there’s some protection issues. That’s the first thing that sticks out,” Cubelic said. “Because of that, I think Patterson has a little bit of an issue getting into a rhythm, getting comfortable but there’s still times you see him flash.

“There doesn’t seem to be much of an emphasis on the run game and just kind of the acceptance of who we are, we’re going to try to beat people through the air and this is who we have. I think you’re seeing some teams adjust to that accordingly on defense and playing a different kind of zone coverage, underneath coverage that make it a little more difficult.”

On the film, Cubelic said he sees the ability and talent but it’s just an offense that isn’t on the same page yet. Once they do find a rhythm, he thinks the Rebels will put up yards and points.

Longo considers execution to be the biggest frustration so far. After the Alabama loss, the No. 1 priority was fundamentals. The offense didn’t re-install anything but it reemphasized the basics because that’s where most of the issues have occurred.

But simplify was the major theme of the week at Ole Miss — on both sides of the ball. What that means for the offense is the staff will minimize the options Patterson and some of the skill players have so they can make quicker decisions and be more definitive.

There’s been complaints, among fans, of the offense being too “predictable” or “simple” through four games.

When asked if he thought that was the case, Longo said: “I think we’ve been a little simple, I do. … Until we execute fundamentally, it’s not going to matter what we run.”

Cubelic said simplicity is just part of the fabric of Longo’s offense.

“He wants his guys to have a smaller set of plays mastered then be able to confuse the defense by what he’s running them out of,” he said. “I wouldn’t say predictable. Now simplistic, sure. But I think that’s who this offense is, it’s who they are.”

Both Longo and Cubelic agreed Ole Miss ultimately has to get the basics down before it expands anything offensively.

“It’s hard to run the whole marathon before you run the half marathon,” Longo said.

Other than simplicity, how does Ole Miss improve Saturday? Cubelic points to first downs.

Against Alabama, Ole Miss ran 20 first down plays and 12 of those plays resulted in gains of three yards or fewer, which put the offense in a tough spot later in the possession.

Through four games, the Rebels are converting on 34 percent of their third-down attempts, which ranks 101st among FBS teams.

“I think in a game like this and moving forward for Ole Miss, having better success on first down is going to be critical because they’re not a team that’s built to have success on 3rd-and-long,” Cubelic said. “Not many teams are but if you’re going to be a 3rd-and-long team and a team that converts, you better have a good offensive line and you better have an offensive line that can protect … and their offensive line is not playing good football right now.”

The offensive line, which returned plenty of experience, hasn’t played up to expectations. Some of that is injury, Cubelic said, some of it is being in bad situations, like 3rd-and-longs, some of it is just getting comfortable in the offense.

But they’re far from the only problem. And it’ll take more than just them to get things turned around.

“I think the one thing we’re acknowledging is we’ve got D.K. Metcalf, DaMarkus Lodge, A.J. Brown and Shea Patterson. They’re all very popular names. They’re all very talented individuals,” Longo said. “But between them, before this year they had maybe eight starts. These guys aren’t seasoned veterans yet and we aren’t playing that way. Until we do, we’re going to see lack of execution. So what we need to do is get back to fundamentals and take a little more of the burden off players and play fast.”

Contact Antonio Morales at 601-961-7117 or amorales2@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter.